Rio to observe holiday on Olympic torch relay day

Traffic in Rio has deeply changed by the Olympics, causing more chaos in Rio's already chaotic traffic

Rio’s Mayor Eduardo Paes has announced that Thursday will be a holiday in order to prevent traffic chaos during the Olympic torch relay.

The Olympic torch, which is already in Rio state and the relay, is expected to get to the city on Thursday.

The mayor thought it better to declare a holiday to alleviate the situation by reducing the number of commuters, reports Xinhua news agency.

Traffic in Rio has deeply changed by the Olympics: the city’s main expressways got special lanes exclusive to vehicles related to the Olympics, such as buses transporting athletes, and several accesses have been closed to the general public.

Those changes caused more chaos in Rio’s already chaotic traffic: over 100 km of traffic jams were registered on Monday and Tuesday.

With the perspective of even more problems on Thursday, Paes decided that another holiday would be a better choice.

Other three holidays had already been announced: August 5, the day of the opening ceremony; the 18th, the day of the marathon; and the 22th, the day after the closing ceremony.